STATE VOTER TURNOUT DOWN 14% FROM 1992

MATTHEW DALY; Courant Staff WriterTHE HARTFORD COURANT

You can lead people to register, but you can't make them vote.

That's one lesson from this year's presidential election. Despite a yearlong voter registration drive, turnout in Connecticut was down by more than 14 percent this year compared with 1992, state officials said Friday.

Just over 1.4 million state residents voted Nov. 5, compared with more than 1.6 million people who voted in the presidential election four years ago, Secretary of the State Miles S. Rapoport reported.

But even with 235,000 fewer voters this year than in 1992, Connecticut remained a national leader in voter turnout, Rapoport said. A total of 57.1 percent of the state's voting- age population cast ballots Nov. 5, well above nationwide figures estimated at just under 50 percent, he said.

Rapoport blamed the drop in the number of people voting on a slight decrease in the state's voting-age population, exacerbated by a presidential race widely viewed as less competitive than in 1992.

"There's no question that the 1992 race was more competitive [than this year], and with Ross Perot as a more serious factor, there was a much higher interest in that race than this year," Rapoport said.

Voters' outlook on the competitiveness of the election turned out to be accurate. President Clinton's 252,535-vote plurality over Republican challenger Bob Dole was the widest presidential margin in Connecticut since 1984, when President Reagan crushed Democrat Walter F. Mondale by more than 320,000 votes.

Rapoport, a Democrat, said that for whatever reason -- an improvement in the economy or just a general sense of satisfaction among voters -- there was less of a sense of urgency about this year's election than in 1992.

"The sense that the outcome of the race was a foregone conclusion, and that many people were satisfied with President Clinton, made some people decide not to vote," he said.

Still, Rapoport said he was pleased that Connecticut remains among the states with the highest voter turnout. A total of 71.5 percent of the state's 1,973,502 registered voters cast ballots Nov. 5, figures compiled by Rapoport's office show.

Rapoport said a more accurate gauge of the state's turnout is 74.9 percent, referring to the percentage of "active" voters who participated in the election. The list of "active" voters is more accurate, because it reflects only those voters whose names and addresses have been verified by local election officials, Rapoport said.

The other list also includes registered voters who failed to respond to an initial canvass and follow-up attempts to verify their address. A total of 1,881,323 voters are on active voting lists, Rapoport said.

A total of 735,740 people, or 52.2 percent, voted for Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, compared with 483,109, or 34.3 percent, who voted for Dole and running mate Jack Kemp, Rapoport said. Perot, who ran on the Reform Party line, came in third in the state with 139,523 votes, or 9.9 percent, followed by Green Party candidate Ralph Nader with 24,321 votes, or 1.7 percent.

Nationwide, Clinton won 45,628,667 votes, followed by Dole with 37,869,435, Perot with 7,874,283, and other candidates with 2,940,164, according to unofficial results from the Associated Press.

The performance by Perot and Nader in Connecticut means that state residents can register as members of those parties, and neither party needs to petition onto the ballot in the year 2000, Rapoport said.

Voters also adopted a proposed constitutional amendment regarding victims' rights by a vote of 656,223, or 78.5 percent, in favor, to 179,882, or 21.5 percent, opposed.

A final canvass to determine the official election results will be conducted Nov. 27.